Alec Magenheimer operates a combine harvester this fall in the Yolo Bypass.

YOLO COUNTY, CA (MPG) – Lodged inside a high-capacity combine harvester plodding over sun-soaked rice fields in the Yolo Bypass, it’s easy to forget that downtown Sacramento is barely 10 miles away.

Alec Magenheimer, a fourth-generation rice farmer, savors the beauty of a late October afternoon as he guides his 16.5-ton harvester through 40 acres of Koshihikari rice, a Japanese short grain known for sweetness and sticky texture.

“I went to Baylor University and studied history, with the idea of going to law school afterward, but there’s something about farming that drew me back,” he said. “Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

As California’s 2026 rice harvest is winding down, farmers from southern Sacramento County to Chico are finishing bringing in this year’s crop.

Rice is grown on some 2,500 farms in the state, and it’s estimated that 475,000 acres will be cultivated this year, producing more than 4 billion pounds of the grain. Planting began in April, and harvesting will continue into November.

Magenheimer farms about 2,500 acres in the Sacramento Valley, including some 2,000 he leases in the Yolo Bypass. He said the past couple of years have been a mixed blessing. 

“Of the 2,000 acres we have in the Bypass, we were only able to plant about 400 acres because of late rains this year, which is what happened last year, too,” Magenheimer said. “But the crop we were able to get in the ground is good quality.”

Magenheimer, 34, started helping on his family’s farm in middle school. He’s been farming rice on his own for a decade now.

He grew about 300 acres of medium-grain Calrose rice and 100 acres of Japanese short grain Koshihikari in the Bypass this year. He also grows rice close to Sacramento International Airport and Dingville, an unincorporated community in Sutter County, just south of Yuba City, near where he lives.

Operating a secondhand Claas Lexion 750 harvester, which can sell for more than $1 million new, Magenheimer can handle four different actions almost simultaneously: reaping, threshing, separation and cleaning. It’s a surprisingly quiet process given that he’s bringing in approximately 8,000 pounds of the grain for every acre he harvests.

After the rice is cut, it is transferred first from the harvester to a bank out wagon, which is a mechanized grain cart, then from a bank out wagon to trailers just beyond the fields.

It is then moved to different locations, depending on the variety. The Japanese short grain is shipped to Marysville, while the medium grain will go to the Port of West Sacramento.

The rice must be dried, hulled, milled and polished before it can make its way to store shelves. 

“Harvest is a team effort across Northern California – growers, mills, dryers and the truckers who help get rice from the field to your table,” said Eric Holst, president and CEO of the California Rice Commission.

California’s rice harvest contributes $5 billion in economic activity by supporting more than 25,000 rice-related jobs in the Sacramento Valley. 

Rice production in the state is concentrated in the Sacramento Valley, from Yolo and Sacramento counties in the south up to Butte and Glenn counties. About 95 percent of California rice is grown in the Sacramento Valley, with the balance grown in the northern San Joaquin Valley.

Most California rice is short- or medium-grain rice used in sushi, paella and risotto. Other U.S. states, such as Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, produce most of the long-grain rice, such as basmati or jasmine rice.

California farmers have grown rice commercially for more than 110 years. More than 95 percent of the sushi rice grown in the U.S. comes from California, according to the California Rice Commission. 

Some of the best rice fields in the state are located in the Yolo Bypass, along Interstate-80 between Davis and West Sacramento, where tens of thousands of people drive each day, often without realizing what’s nearby.

The rice-growing season begins in late winter and early spring as fields are flooded with about five inches of water. Many California farmers rely on airplanes to seed their crop by dropping pre-soaked rice into flooded fields.

Rice plants emerge in spring and early summer and grow to about three feet tall. All the while, fields are kept flooded, which helps contain weeds. By late summer and early fall, fields are drained and plants are allowed to dry.

The harvest itself is done relatively quickly. Harvesters can cut anywhere from 20 to 100 acres of rice a day, depending on the variety. Magenheimer said it will take eight to 10 days – sometimes working well into the evening – to harvest his rice crop in the Bypass. 

Once the harvest is done, rice fields are intentionally flooded, creating a wetland environment for migratory birds, waterfowl and other species like snakes and fish. Millions of ducks, geese, shorebirds, eagles and cranes will move into the fields, as will juvenile salmon. In all, more than 225 species are connected to Sacramento Valley rice fields.

“Every acre we harvest this fall goes right back to work as wildlife habitat this winter,” Holst said. 

Magenheimer is a fourth-generation rice farmer. His father grows organic varieties in Sacramento County and near Yuba City, and his grandfather and great-grandfather also grew rice, dating back to the 1950s.

“Rice is a fairly capital-intensive crop. It costs approximately $1,500 an acre to grow rice,” he said. “If everything goes well, you can get $2,000 an acre back if you have a good crop.”

Farmers such as Magenheimer are often subject to the whims of nature, including an unusually wet and stormy spring in 2026 that delayed rice planting and created saturated fields across the Sacramento Valley.

Magenheimer will rely at least in part on crop insurance to get through 2026, since the late rains prevented him from planting on some 80 percent of the land he leased in the Bypass.

Other factors such as the rising cost of diesel fuel will also impact his bottom line. Magenheimer’s operation, which employs half a dozen, uses about 100 gallons of diesel per day per combine during harvest time. 

Rice growers, like all farmers, know too well that unpredictable factors such as volatile weather, concerns about water rights, significant capital costs and constantly shifting crop prices make their jobs high-stress and high-risk.

But there are intangible benefits that go with raising a successful crop, including the opportunity to work outdoors, the autonomy and independence associated with agriculture, and the sense of purpose that comes with being a critical part of the world’s food supply.

For Magenheimer, there are also little things like seeing rice he planted, nurtured and harvested on the shelves of Sacramento-area stores.

“I find farming to be extremely rewarding,” he said. “I get to push myself physically and mentally every year. I enjoy problem-solving and find it rewarding to continuously perfect my craft.”